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Cessair: the First Taking of Ireland, Before the Flood
Lebor Gabála Érenn, "the Book of the Taking of Ireland", is a medieval history put together by monastic scholars. It weaves Irish tradition into the Bible's timeline and tells of the peoples who took Ireland, one after another. The first is Cessair's, and it begins in the world of Noah. This is myth and medieval learning, not recorded history.
The Flight West
Cessair was the daughter of Bith, son of Noah. As the Flood drew near, one version says Noah himself told them to go to the western edge of the world, where the waters might not reach. Other versions say they were refused a place on the Ark and turned to an idol for advice. Three ships set out. Two were wrecked. One came ashore at Dún na mBárc in the south-west, often placed on Bantry Bay, forty days before the Flood.
Fifty Women and Three Men
On that ship were fifty women and three men: Bith, son of Noah; Ladra, the pilot; and Fintan mac Bóchra. A poem in Fintan's voice tells how they shared out the women "for peace and for reason". Fintan took seventeen, Cessair among them. Bith took seventeen with Bairrfhind, and Ladra took sixteen with Alba. The poem even lists the women by name.
The First Deaths
It did not last. Ladra died first, at Ard Ladrann, remembered as the first dead man buried in the soil of Ireland. Later tellings say his women went back to the others and were shared again. Then Bith died and was buried in the great cairn of Sliab Betha, the mountain named after him. Fintan, left alone with the women, fled from them. Cessair died at Cúil Cessrach in Connacht with her maidens, of a broken heart in later retellings. Then the Flood came.
Fintan the Wise
Only Fintan lived. In the poem he says God hid him above the Flood at Tul Tuinde, where he spent a year under the waters. Later tales say he lived on as a salmon, then an eagle, then a hawk, and became a man again. He outlived every taking that came after his own: Partholón, Nemed, the Fir Bolg, the Tuatha Dé Danann and the sons of Míl. In the tale of the Settling of the Manor of Tara, he is summoned to Tara to settle a dispute and recount the ancient history of Ireland. His survival is the device that makes the whole history possible: one living memory reaching back before the Flood.
Other Versions
The scholars did not all agree. A version quoted from the lost Cín Dromma Snechta says the first woman was Banba, one of the old names of Ireland, who came with three fifties of maidens and three men, and that they all died of a plague before the Flood. Other passages tell of three fishermen from Spain, Capa, Laigne and Luasad, blown to Ireland a year before the Flood. The medieval writers kept these stories side by side and let them differ.
Why It Matters
Cessair's taking ends in silence: the island lay empty after the Flood until Partholón came. But it gave Ireland a story older than the Flood itself, and a witness, Fintan, to carry it.
These are legends from medieval manuscripts, not recorded history.
First shared on X @dalriada36963 and TikTok @johnshaw333.
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